Defense

Object/Artifact

-

Wharton Esherick Museum

Image courtesy of Eoin O’Neill and Wharton Esherick Museum Collection

Image courtesy of Eoin O’Neill and Wharton Esherick Museum Collection

Name/Title

Defense

Made/Created

Artist

Wharton Esherick

Date made

1939

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Overall

Height

22 in

Width

22 in

Depth

16 in

Material

Painted wood

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Object Label

Label

Submitted as an entry for the U.S. Treasury Department’s war memorial competition (the winning entry was a representational piece depicting a farmer laying down the reins and picking up a rifle). Offense knows the direction of attack, defense requires flexibility. Defense was used again in 1964 as a model for WE’s entry in Philadelphia’s Kennedy Plaza fountain competition, envisioning a 60-foot-high replication in stainless steel, centered in a circular basin of radiating ripples.